itsDefrag Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 (edited) Hello! So I'm currently trying to run .bin of Sega Saturn games, just any Sega Saturn game, through MAME. I've set up MAME in launchbox as the default emulator for Sega Saturn ROMs. I believe the commandline prompt I have for Sega Saturn ROMs being booted through MAME is "saturn -cdrom" (I'm not at home so I can't remember, but I have a setup for the other platforms (MegaDrive, SNES, NeoGeo, PlayStation) with no issues. When I double click a Saturn ROM (be it zipped or extrated and accessing the .bin file), the Saturn startup sequence loads through MAME no problem, then it goes to the "drive empty" screen the Saturn would have used. Wondering if I'm perhaps using the wrong ROMs, but not really sure. I understand that showing where to get ROMS etc is prohibited, and I'm most definitely not asking for that, however if I am using the wrong content (I don't even know how you would be able to tell from this post, sorry in advance!), I'd like to know, and any keywords that might aid my search for finding appropriate working Saturn ROMs. EDIT: Just want to say thanks in advance for any help anybody is willing to take the time to give me, the community here has helped me a great deal through simply using the search function (which I 100% used for this problem but found nothing, sadly). So, thank you for your time! Edited February 3, 2020 by itsDefrag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headrush69 Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 (edited) If you are looking to play Saturn games, MAME is far from your best option, and some games just won't work. Look at using or Mednafen or the Retroarch Mednafen core. (Beetle core) If you have .bin files, you might need to make cue file for them to load. It is quite easy. You also need to make sure you have the needed BIOS files. More info is here: Libretro Docs for Saturn core Edited February 3, 2020 by Headrush69 Fix bad formatting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsDefrag Posted February 3, 2020 Author Share Posted February 3, 2020 I hear ya, I've tried Yaba Sanshiro and Mednafen, but the post effects in MAME I had already setup to a state I really liked, so I was using an .ini file to enjoy that aesthetic across as many platforms as possible. I'll give Mednafen another go, but I'd have hoped there was some way to make MAME work, I just really like how easy it is to access control setups, and once an .ini is setup nicely, it's smooth sailing (well.. not in this case haha!). I have the correct BIOS files as far as I'm aware; I guess Saturn ROMs just don't play nicely with MAME yet. Shame Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 have you tried loading the cue file instead of the bin file? You could also convert your games to .chd and then they should work in MAME. I don't use MAME for Saturn but I have tested it out and know it does work at least with .chd files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsDefrag Posted February 3, 2020 Author Share Posted February 3, 2020 Just now, DOS76 said: have you tried loading the cue file instead of the bin file? You could also convert your games to .chd and then they should work in MAME. I don't use MAME for Saturn but I have tested it out and know it does work at least with .chd files. I have, but I haven't tried converting games to .chd. I'll have a gander on the internet and see what I can find on that, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 there is a program in the MAME folder that lets you do so. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsDefrag Posted February 3, 2020 Author Share Posted February 3, 2020 25 minutes ago, DOS76 said: there is a program in the MAME folder that lets you do so. Managed to convert some to CHD, and sadly I still get the drive empty. It's strange, since it is allowing that Sega Saturn boot up screen and even leaves me on the Saturn "drive empty" screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fromlostdays Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 I've never used MAME for Sega Saturn either, and would also recommend switching, but I came across this in google: It seems like you may have to specify the correct region bios in the command line? (I have no idea how to do this) Because I don't use MAME, I'm not sure but I recall a few older Saturn Emulators required you to actually mount the disk (using something like daemon tools) before the emulator would run the game. I don't KNOW if Mame is like this, in fact I kinda doubt it, but it might be worth looking into. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 Mame loads Saturn games with the cue file just fine, I have tested in the past. I can't say how accurate the emulation is in comparison to Mednafen but in the few games I did test it seemed to be fine and it even ran one game I tested better than Mednafen. I do recommend using Mednafen, either the stand alone or Retroarch core is great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headrush69 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 2 hours ago, itsDefrag said: Managed to convert some to CHD, and sadly I still get the drive empty. It's strange, since it is allowing that Sega Saturn boot up screen and even leaves me on the Saturn "drive empty" screen. Can you post the command line you are launching with? Just tested with my CHDs and they mostly do run, but console is flooded with cd buffer errors and it runs a lot slower than other options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 There may be a issue with your disk image as there are a lot of bad Saturn rips out in the wild. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsDefrag Posted February 6, 2020 Author Share Posted February 6, 2020 Yeah, could be the case. I'm going to keep looking for a particular CHD list I've heard of and see where that takes me, if I figure this out, I'll be sure to post the solution here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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